Why does Fluther allow so few questions?

There are a couple of reasons. The first is that we prefer that people ask good questions, and limiting them to three a day theoretically helps in that regard. The other is that it limits the damage a spammer or troll can do to the site in one shot.

I understand and agree with both you, @Naked_Whale_Tamer, and @augustlan.

My supposition would be that at one time the traffic on Fluther was great enough that questions could be limited for @augustlan‘s reasons.

Fluther isn’t about statistics or being “the guy who has asked thousands of questions.” We value quality over quantity. Being able to ask as many questions as you want is the best way to increase simplemindedness. Instead, Fluther requires you to think before you ask.

@SavoirFaire wrote:

“Fluther isn’t about statistics or being “the guy who has asked thousands of questions.” We value quality over quantity. Being able to ask as many questions as you want is the best way to increase simplemindedness. Instead, Fluther requires you to think before you ask.”

Yet Quroa is growing exponentially with tens of millions of users. A lot of questions and answers come from the heads of major corporations, astronauts (seriously), professors from Ivy League universities and a lot of instantly recognizable people that are household names.
I joined Quora years ago when there were “only” 250,000 users.

The Quora community (users like myself) eliminate crappy questions and answers.

When I come across a spammer, I eliminate the question and report the user to moderators which ban them.

Why do you bother with poor pitiful Fluther, @Naked_Whale_Tamer. That’s not the first time you’ve compared Fluther and Quroa unfavorably.

I guess my poor pitiful answer would be that I’m not a head of a major corporation, astronaut, or professor from an Ivy League university but, like them, I prefer to associate with my own kind. Fluther is a social site, like it or not.

If it’s knowledge you seek, I suggest Dogpile. All your vaunted experts are surely to be found on there, and in a format that allows for timely consideration.

Fluther has rules. Rules are so uncommon any more that I rather appreciate it.

I agree with @ibstubro. If you don’t like it here then leave.

It does seem that since I left there are not as many people using Fluther as there was last time I was here I’m sure there isn’t any correlation so maybe upping the limit of the amount of questions we can ask in one day might not be such a bad idea. I thought of a few questions this morning but didn’t ask them because of the limit; I thought I might come up with something better, but haven’t…so the questions have gone unasked so far.

I wouldn’t go anywhere else and haven’t been in the time I’ve not been using Fluther. I have come to love the Fluther community over the years, even though I do disappear some times, but I always come back.

Maybe the limit on questions is a little off putting, but I think it is challenging us users to be more focused and inventive. A couple of more on the limit though wouldn’t go amiss perhaps.

I don’t think we should be telling @Naked_Whale_Tamer to leave. I mean, of course he is free to, but I don’t have any problem with his questioning our rules.

@Naked_Whale_Tamer Fluther was once a pretty big deal in the Q&A world, but we got royally screwed when Google changed their search algorithms. We had over a million unique views per month, and that figure dropped like a stone after the change. At this point, the site’s founders are off doing other projects, and have graciously kept this site open for us. It’s a labor of love, not money.

I agree @augustlan we shouldn’t be telling people to like it or lump it. Besides, everyone loves a ‘naked whale tamer’! don’t they??!!

While we shouldn’t tell people “Love it or leave it,” I think we can ask someone to show some manners. For years, I was on another forum and I thought Fluther was much better. But I wasn’t rude enough to go onto that site and say “You do this wrong and Fluther does it right.” over and over and over. I may have done it once when they switched from a Fluther-like Q&A format to a ranked Yahoo style format, but I let it drop once I realized they weren’t going to change.

I think it’s rude to constantly talk about how some other site is so much better. It makes me wonder if you’re making a poor attempt to be a shill for the site and take people away from here. That’s not polite. It makes me not want to go to Quora at all if there are people so impolite on it.

Damn.

I was going to write a response to @augustlan, but @keobooks took the scattered thoughts out of my head and wrote them into a reasoned response of her own.

I knew there was a reason that I was a not-so-secret admirer of @keobooks!

That is a fair point, @keobooks.

BTW this site turned out to be MUCH better in the end. That site is gone now. That’s why we have @ibsturbo here! I hope I wasn’t too hard on the OP, though. I just wanted to say my piece (or peace.. I’m not sure which is correct)

attaboys to @augustlan & @keobooks!

we all deserve a piece of peace

nice speech, thanks

@Dutchess_III wrote:

” I agree with @ibstubro. If you don’t like it here then leave.”

Apparently you speak for the majority, so I’ll take your advice and leave.

Moderator, please delete my questions and answers and close my account.

@Naked_Whale_Tamer I don’t see how you get that “leave” is the majority answer. One or two people does not equate to the majority. That said, if you want to leave, it’s easy enough to do. You just disable your account. However, your questions and answers will remain. I’m the community manager, and can tell you that we don’t remove content without a very compelling reason to do so.

Ya know what?

I don’t think talking about the site and asking why it has limitations is an attack or a negative question. I don’t think it’s rude.

We had a recent question that focused on Fluther about two days ago and some points were raised and nobody had fit and fell into it.

I don’t get it sometimes.

I myself often want to ask some thought provoking questions, but I hold back because I know my intent will very often be misinterpreted by someone—and then their friends come to support their theory, then the point of the question is lost and I end up feeling bad. So I hold back.

Let’s go watch a kitten video.

just so we’re clear @Naked_Whale_Tamer: Do NOT leave

Yeah no shit, if he wants to bring up the Quora place, why the hell not? If he wants to make distinctions between the two, what’s the problem? If he likes Quora better than Fluther, so? We should tell him to leave because of that? Meh. I welcome any new member who wants to stick around, as long as their discussions and contributions are interesting, and @Naked_Whale_Tamer seems an interesting guy. His argument is constructive, not spam or trolling.

There certainly are some problems with Fluther, and one of em has shown itself in this thread, meh.

@nebule “just so we’re clear @Naked_Whale_Tamer: Do NOT leave”

Too late sadly, he’s already gone.

Poll: We request that Duchess is hired as a new Moderator.

So he has. Well fuck sakes. :(

“Yet Quroa is growing exponentially with tens of millions of users.”

This proves nothing. Again, quality over quantity.

“A lot of questions and answers come from the heads of major corporations, astronauts (seriously), professors from Ivy League universities and a lot of instantly recognizable people that are household names.”

I can get all the exposure I need to celebrities from other places. Nor do I think that the sorts of people you name are intrinsically better question askers. As for whether they give better answers, I wouldn’t trust anything said by the head of a major corporation. And we already have doctors, scientists, and professors here. Unfortunately, you didn’t stay long enough to learn about that.

I have used Quora too. It’s not celebrities. It’s people in academics and people like Criag Newmar, Neil Degrasse Tyson – and if you claim to be a astronaut, you better be able to prove it because they will actually contact you and arrange to talk to you by phone. I know because I was asked to call.

It’s a vibrant site. I wanted a smaller site myself but there is no reason we can’t compare the two, or ask a question. We do not have the people Quora has and to claim we do is silly.
The questions here are not going to draw the attention of Neil Degrasse Tyson. Not that I care because I still can go over there whenever I want and check it out.

oh poop. <sigh>

@MadMadMax Neil deGrasse Tyson is a celebrity. A celebrity scientist, yes; but a celebrity all the same. And all I said was that I can get all I need of celebrities elsewhere. That could include Quora. It does not, in fact, as I am not particularly a fan of the site. But to each their own.

“Neil deGrasse Tyson is a celebrity. A celebrity scientist, yes; but a celebrity all the same. ”

I never looked at it that way. I suppose you could say Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking are celebrities, but in my world I wouldn’t use the term to apply to working teachers an scientists who have gained public attention.

Stephen Hawking said: “I am a scientist not a celebrity.”

“We few, we happy few…”

@MadMadMax Neil deGrasse Tyson goes on television all the time, does AMAs at reddit, has a popular Twitter account, and has generally made himself one of the public faces of science. Stephen Hawking has not done these things. So while he may be well known, I would agree with his claim to not be a celebrity. There’s a difference between gaining public attention, and placing oneself in the limelight.

@SavoirFaire
Stephen Hawkings has been on multiple tv shows, debates, and especially PBS. You’re grasping at straws. Let it go.

I just think it’s sad that people who ask a relatively sensible and innocuous question get told to leave if they don’t like it.

@nebule – It wasn’t just one sensible and innocuous question. He asked SEVERAL about “Why does Fluther do this when Quora does it so much better?” This question by itself looks fine, but when you saw most of his posts, he was being rude.

@ucme Lol. Your post is the name of a trophy for this tactical military game I own, where you fight aliens. maybe now people know where my alien question came from haha
The trophy is for winning a battle without losing any soldiers at all, wonder if it’s a reference to something.

Anyways, completely off topic and random, so sorrah.

@Symbeline It’s a quote from Shakey Spear, that Zulu warrior who wrote Henry V in between drum practice.

I belong to a number of social sites and they don’t limit the number of questions you can ask as many questions as you want. So I kind of feel the same way.

My fear is that Fluther is fading away— and I wonder if allowing more questions might draw a larger membership unless it is the plan of the designers to allow Fluther to fade out of it’s own accord which I’ve kinda seen before.

As far as Fluther being filled with enticing people who ask challenging questions, I haven’t seen it. I figure it was back when it had a larger membership or something.

Actually, the best latest questions came from a new member called Naked_Whale_Tamer, but that’s just me.

@ucme Huh, really. And I call myself a fan, I should probably have known that.

Like I said, I don’t think there is any problem at all to ask “Why does Fluther do this?” I DO think it’s a problem to say “Why does Fluther do this when SiteX does it SO much better” several times in several questions.

I’ve known of two people who left this site because they didn’t like the way the questions were limited here. I don’t really care about question limits myself. But I can understand why people don’t like it.

“We few, we happy few, we band of brothers”
Known as the St.Crispin’s day speech. I used it in reference to the few questions we’re allocated here.
There may not be many, but by gum they’re happy buggers.

@keobooks Nothing is WRONG with comparisons.

I can’t do a proper head desk here. That is cause to complain! But trust me, I’m banging my head on a desk right now. Excuse me for a bit.

@keobooks First, I don’t understand a word you just said. Really. It’s a jumble of words.
___________________________________________

But is this your argument: We don’t put up with much here – we all must march to the tune of one drummer. Okay. noted.

This is not a productive conversation at this point, guys. It’s unfortunate all the way around, but we should just move on now.

Maybe he’ll come back with some whale blubber.

@MadMadMax In that case, I will revise my opinion and say that Stephen Hawking is a celebrity. No grasping at straws here. Just a matter of definition.

Just because he said he isn’t a celebrity, after all, doesn’t mean he is correct. Shia LaBeouf claimed not to be famous anymore so he could avoid discussions of his plagiarism, but he’s obviously still famous.

As the site no longer has development, the entire conversation was non-productive, @augustlan.

Personally I suspected he was the reincarnation of a huffy Flutherite, trying to advertise an alternative.

@ibstubro As the site no longer has development, the entire conversation was non-productive, @augustlan. Seriously dude? :/

@MadMadMax “I’m pulling out of what is evolving into a stupid flame war.”

Yeah, I’ve been told a number of times that a comment I made was irrelevant because the site is no longer in development, @Symbeline. The original developers took jobs with Twitter and just left the site up for us to use.

@ibstubro I’m well aware that the site is no longer under development, but it is still maintained. For example when it breaks down, Ben or Andrew come and fix it, and Auggie is maintaining the community, along with the mods.
Whoever told you that your comments are irrelevant because the site is no longer seeing progress is out of order. We’re still an active community.

@Symbeline I don’t believe everything I hear, but I believed it at the time when I was told that changes were no longer made in the site. Perhaps @augustlan could confirm or deny. I was pretty sure it was a moderator that made the comment, but there’s too much dross out there for me to try and find a comment that caused the reply.

If it’s untrue, I’ll be the first to eat my words.

I have no problem with the OP, even if he refuses to train fully-clothed whales! ;-)

@MadMadMax – No that is not my argument. You have completely missed my point. Repeatedly. And I bang my head on a desk because you keep missing the point. Head desk is an old internet meme that just about everyone knows. Sorry if you missed that one as well.

No, it’s not wrong to make comparisons, but YES it’s ANNOYING to make SEVERAL POSTS comparing your favorite site with this one. And YES I will call someone out for acting like a shill for another site. It’s like going to someones house and complaining that they don’t serve snacks as tasty as the neighbors and then saying the neighbors have better furniture, a nicer house and dress better than the hosts. It’s not illegal. There’s nothing wrong with comparisons. But to do it MULTIPLE times is RUDE.

DO YOU GET IT??

I won’t come back to this again. If you misinterpret my point again, I will ignore you. Because I have finally figured out that you can’t figure this one out.

Again, a reasoned response was in order, but @keobooks removed the reason response was in order.

@keobooks I looked at his answers to multiple questions and they were all taken very seriously and he was more than helpful, especially in the areas of computer issues etc. He never brought up quora there.

AND WE DO NOT HAVE A RULE THAT SAYS YOU CAN’T COMPARE YOUR FAVORITE WEBSITES.

You are not a Moderator and the Moderator said he was not being offensive. So who are you to judge what we can ask and what we can discuss here?

Steady up.

My head is going to hurt so badly in the morning. /ignore

^^Good.

But in comparison to many Q and A websites, Fluther is better since they don’t allow bad writing, spam and unhelpful answer. And to me that’s enough.

Mmmmmmmmmm. Don’t know what to think. Is the whale tamer correct in stating that fluther is moribund? I thought the handle intriguing, but couldn’t reason an advantage to taming whales while nude. So perhaps the monicker was about taming naked whales. What’s in a name? Rambling. I need a nap. augustlan’s declaration on the productivity of these comments——is it a polite way of saying goodbye? Want to see something that lingers in my head? The magnificent sonorous voice, the short passage of dialog that all by itself renders ours a superlative language——contrast all of this with the visual image.

http://bardfilm.blogspot.com/2013/03/30-rock-does-macbeth.html

I am a fat lady.

La la la la! Do Re Mi!

Now this thread is officially OVER.

Don’t be so sure! If you are a fat lady, what’s with the fraudulent avatar? Wait a second—is your avatar like mine, an image of what you hope to become?

Nah.. It’s more like an image of what I used to be! I was a scrawny little kid. But Marcie is also my personality—brainy little shy kid who usually follows others around and lets them make the splash while I hang back.

Well with that disappointment , your thread statement is probably correct. But I choose to hope that there abides in you some secret spark of malevolence

Typical. The fat lady has to sing before we get interesting content.

Just wanted to say at first I was skeptical about Quora. I’ve come to learn there is a lot of high quality questions and answers there and you can sort of get the sense that only experts in the said topics are answering.

@pleiades I’ve been a member of Quora for a long time, I have friends who were Beta members (invited) and were nominated as Best New Writer and Best Answer multiple times.
My friend was a member here until yesterday. I talked him into joining since his questions are so well received and he’s rec’d so many accolades. He feels people here are too easily offended and not very broad minded.

I was nominated for Best Story on Quora and Best post, but I became a member when there were already a million members. I was also a member of Askville as a Beta member and until the last day.

Yes, Quora was developed by people from Stamford Univ and Harvard for the most part. And due to it’s popularity and style, some very well known people have popped into Quora to answer a question, AND many very well placed people have submitted answers BUT for the most part, a lot of members are just plain folks like me and you. There’s something for everybody over there.

What Quora has, and I’m not sure if I like it or not ;), is a VERY international membership. Tons of posters are English speaking but post from all over the entire world. That makes the answers very interesting and informative.

I’m still a member of Quora and I’m still a member of Fluther.

Quora has some very annoying features and some brilliant features that could help Fluther bring in more people. There’s nothing wrong with making a site better by adopting some proven methods. It’s done all the time.

Shrug.

@MadMadMax :-) xx I think you’re lurvely xx yours, not a member of quora

Luve back to you nebule. :) Hugs

I just came across this article entitled “Quora and the Search for Truth”
By QUENTIN HARDY
New York Times – February 9, 2014
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/quora-and-the-search-for-truth/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

…........
Quora is a question-and-answer website founded by Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever, two early employees at Facebook. Begun in June 2010, it claims to have information on over 450,000 topics, almost all posted by its registered users.

“The scale is so big that there’s no point in saying what the top 50 questions are,” said Mr. D’Angelo, who is also Quora’s chief executive. Unlike a news business, immediacy isn’t an issue, either. “Eighty percent of our views happen a month after an answer is written,” he said.

…......
The range of topics is certainly impressive. Questions include “What’s it like to hug a penguin?” and “Who are the likely 2016 Republican presidential candidates?” and “Is Al Qaeda winning?” Most of the questions have multiple answers, which other readers vote up or down.

Answers with the most votes don’t always end up at the top of a list of answers to a question, presumably the place of truth; over 100 factors, including down votes and who is voting, affect the ranking. But the votes are what is visible, and they matter for the business of keeping people engaged.

It’s not just impossible to say how accurate the answers are; it may not really be an issue. The penguin question, for example, has two answers at its top with opposite conclusions. Their difference may be resolved this way: Hugging a penguin at Sea World is cute, and hugging a penguin in the wild is like asking for a mugging. There is no such distinction in the answers themselves, however.

It is reasonably entertaining, however (in this case, if you’re into penguins). Quora styles itself “the topic network,” which is another way of saying it is partly in the business of organizing knowledge into categories about which people can have discussions. Everything is subject to change, a kind of implicit admission that nothing can ever be finally known.

As systems of knowledge go, it’s an exercise in the impossibility of certainty. With few exceptions, it’s hard to say that anything has an authentically “right” answer, since everything is open to revision by a new entrant. Readers of the questions vote on answers, and their positive votes appear as a tally next to the answers.

What often seems to get votes, and thereby win pride of place in the “truth” contest, seems to be personal experience. A lot of what people want to read about, after all, is other people. And they tend to trust other people’s stories.

In some ways, it’s possible to look at most of the big websites as information filters of one kind or another. Google uses factors like links to a web page, or the publisher’s reputation, to find likely places for a query’s answer. Facebook organizes music, topical news and the bonds of love and career according to social connections. Twitter users organize around people the reader esteems, or hashtags. Quora’s filter seems often to be its own members and their personal experiences.

With so many topics, it’s crucial that a new user be captivated by some question. Registration seeks information like college and occupation, which can help. The real key is participation.

“If you answer one or two questions, we know 11 or 12 topics to put in front of you,” Mr. Bodnick said. If you read in those topics, you are also more likely to vote, write comments on answers, or write an answer yourself.

Keeping the topics interesting is what builds engagement, which in turn leads to more answers. “It turns out to be a really interesting problem,” Mr. D’Angelo said. “It unifies statistics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.” A recent report from Quora runs to 17 pretty technical pages.

Quora does not divulge traffic numbers, but according to Alexa, Quora is the web’s 441st most visited site, which puts it around Okcupid and The Drudge Report. Comscore figures Quora had 1.15 million unique visitors in December, well under the 3.1 million uniques it counts for Stackoverflow, a question-and-answer site devoted to technology questions.

That is all pretty good, considering Quora is the only one of those sites that requires the commitment of registration. There’s some kind of truth in that, assuming people give their correct names.

Holy Great Wall of Text, Batman!

TL DR

It has paragraphs and proper indentation. It is not a wall of text just sayin

It’s still a total teal deer.

oh dear

Gee and I removed two paragraphs or more. I can’t win can I.

Me thinks me caught a virus.

I thought it was so interesting that there would be an article about Quora in the New York Times the day after this thread was discussed.

I learned a lot more than I knew and I’ve been there a long time.

Just to clarify, I wasn’t saying goodbye…Fluther isn’t going anywhere. :)

Yea!

@MadMadMax You said, “Quora has some very annoying features and some brilliant features that could help Fluther bring in more people. There’s nothing wrong with making a site better by adopting some proven methods. It’s done all the time.”

There is one problem with that statement, which has been mentioned many times, our founders are no longer actively making changes to the site. Fluther, until further notice, is what it is. Unless the founders decided to come back and do things differently, the site is in maintenance only mode. I think that is what gets some users so frustrated when people come in and just talk about changing x, y, and z. When users explain that to the person making the suggestion, that person usually instantly takes it as a “no that sucks” rather than a “no one is here to make that change” response. Then it turns into an ugly mess.

But surely you can allow more than three questions without having to reprogram the whole site?

We do need more questions.

One of my favorite posters left because she ran out of questions too quickly. She liked to ask questions more than answer other people’s questions. She used to ask tons of questions on Askville, but got hung up when she ran out of questions all the time on Fluther. I still miss her, wherever she is.

@MadMadMax I don’t know how much coding it would take. The point is, the founders aren’t doing any of that here anymore due to moving on.

If you actually looked at how many people use their 3 questions a day, you’d realize that most users do not even use the 1 or 2 questions they are allowed to use each day, let alone run into times when they can’t ask anymore questions for that day because they’ve used all 3. We have told people that they are free to ask someone else to ask a question for them if they have reached their limit and have another question they are just dying to ask right then. Is it a pain? Probably, but we really do want quality over quantity.

I keep trying but the mods keep pulling my questions even though I am painstakingly legal.

It doesn’t matter if you have someone pulling their chains.

Since we are a social networking site I think we need a topic on BULLYING. It would make for some good conversation.

@MadMadMax There have been many discussions about bullying here on Fluther. As a matter of fact, if you do a search on Fluther for “bully” or “bullying” it comes up with over 4000 questions & responses. Perhaps you can start looking there and see if there is a new conversation to start based on the ones we’ve had to date.

New people sometimes come and bring up what something they noticed or thought of and don’t want to see old discussions by members that have long left. I also don’t think that’s constructive for bringing in new blood.

I had a point in mind that was current——but thanks for the suggestion.

@MadMadMax I wasn’t suggesting just going by the old questions. I was suggesting seeing what we’ve talk about before and using that as a starting point to guide a new discussion.

@MadMadMax you had one question pulled because it was a flame to @ibstubro that you took from this thread and started your own. You can claim otherwise, but you quoted a phrase he had used not 10 minutes before and put it in the main question of your post. You have to be a little sneakier to get away with that – like waiting a day or two or wording things slightly differently.

As for the second one, I was bummed out that got removed because it had JUST started to get interesting. Once a poster was finally man enough to get over the retroactive law part of the post and changed the premise, it was an excellent question. I scratched my head on that one and chalked it up to writing standards. Maybe cutting and pasting a question and several answers from another site without crediting the sources was considered poor writing. It WAS entertaining on a surreal level for a while.

If you have had other posts removed, that’s news to me. Maybe if you thought about why those posts were removed you could figure them out. It would be odd for the moderators to be fairly even handed with everyone except for one person.

I’ve never quoted anyone in a question Using a dictionary term that happened to used multiple times by people on this site is not quoting anybody. You are obfuscating.

I am going to ask you nicely to please get off my back and stop following me around the site.

That’s obvious so just let it drop here.

I don’t know what you are talking about. I haven’t been following you around the site.

There are only TWO threads that I have been in with you.

1. I posted about the Bonfire of the Vanities. Oh for shame. Is it stalking to post in the same thread you are?

2. I posted that your thread was weird and creepy. That thread is gone.most likely because it WAS weird and creepy.

If I am following you around, I am doing a heck of a bad job at it.

If you’re being stalked, @MadMadMax, I urge you to report it to the moderators!

I don’t like the fact that I have ex-Askvillers who never were supportive of my posts over there, bringing their angst over here. I think that alone makes this site impossible for me to settle into so goodbye and go find another victim.

That’s not true at all. I always liked your posts. I never once attacked you at Askville. I was SHOCKED to find out you and your persona at Askville were the same person. I had no idea until last night when someone told me. You had a totally different way of writing and presenting yourself 2 – 3 years ago (that’s when I was last active on Askville.

Don’t go around making up stories about me being mean to you on Askville. Because I wasn’t. I was only mean to Rock, DirectMale and occaisionally… whatsername… the person with the cat avatar that hated TurboB. I can only remember her rl name and can’t remember who she was on Askville. Funny thing is, while I fought with her to the death on that site, we were always pleasant to each other via PM. We knew to leave our bickering at the door.

Sorry long segway.. but anyway, I am still shocked that you are who you are. I still can’t believe it. You have changed.

And I have repeatedly said that my best ever PM exchange on Askville was with @MadMadMax. We chatted for days. I still make excuses for the change in behavior, but I still don’t find it socially acceptable.

Just as an aside, I was wary of you you first came on, @ibstubro because there were a number of people who made avatars just to make fun of TurboB. With your name, I thought you were one of them. Couldn’t figure out why you posted your own stuff and never once got nasty with her. Then it dawned on me that you just happened to pick that name by coincidence.

I was buddies with both turbo and LouLou. The leaders of both factions. Turbo finally turned evil and I have LouLou’s email. :)

Tell LouLou I said hello. We always fought in public but we talked about babies and families in private!

Will do. There were a number of people who believed my name was Ibsturbo. Still happens occasionally as people automatically try to push the unfamiliar into a familiar pattern.

I do think we should be allowed more questions, even if it is only say 5 a day. The questions are what keeps the site turning. It’s sad another new user has gone? The community gets smaller and smaller each day. In the end it results in less of a question and answer site and more of ‘the ramblings of a bunch of friends’. Ugh! What a shame.

@LornaLove Yeah, that’s what I wish for too. But apart from that, I think Fluther is the best (or at least not as bad as what the OP stated)

By the way the OP seems to have left a long time ago. Well, if he doesn’t like Fluther we don’t have to force him to stay :)

@Mimishu1995 Yes of course, agreed, but so many people did come along to fluther lately and did not stay. In a way I think that is the problem with a small community. My point is not to bash fluthers community whom I am very fond of, but we have to allow new people to make mistakes. I do realize when I re-read the question it sounded slightly condescending though. A challenge is good though?Perhaps we all stick to ‘safe’ questions too much.

@LornaLove There is a very thin line between an “innovative” question and an “inappropriate” question. Sometimes I ask a question that is so “innovative” that it turns into an “inappropriate” one.

@LornaLove Here, I’ve just asked a seemingly “innovative” question. Hope it’s not turning into an “inappropriate” one.

The problem wasn’t this specific question on it’s own. The problem was that in several other threads he went on and on about how Quora was so much better than fluther. There’s nothing technically wrong with it. But it’s like if you were in someone’s home and constantly complained about what a dump it was, the host and hostess aren’t likely to go out of their way to make you feel welcome.

I wish you could still track a vanished user’s posts. His was almost entirely “Fluther can’t do this. Quora is better because you can do this” And it was just annoying as all get out.

I don’t think if you have a problem with fluther it’s wrong to complain, but if all you can do is complain, maybe this isn’t the place for you.

I think Quora kind of sucks, I only went once though.

As far as new people asking about this site or comparing them, I agree it’s slightly annoying because if we wanted to be at Quora we would (obviously), but I don’t think it’s necessary to be rude to them.

I don’t think it sucks as far as it does what it’s supposed to. But I don’t like the format it’s in. I like a chronological dialogue more than having answers ranked as it seems to be. Also, either those people are way smarter than me, or way better at being pseudointellectual. I didn’t feel qualified to answer an opinion question about Harry Freaking Potter!

@keobooks I hate people who try too hard to be high-brow, one of my pet peeves…lol If you can say it in five words don’t use fifteen, know what I mean? :)

Rudeness not met head-on begets increased rudeness, @KNOWITALL.

If the intend was not rudness, he would have stayed and explained, IMO.

Personally, I’m generally pleased when people deprive me of their extreme wonderfulness and intellect. Save me the trouble of having to ignore them. :)

“If you don’t like it here then leave.” could be considered either rude or assertive, @keobooks, and could be the reference.

In this case, it appears to have been sound advice.

@ibstubro Yeah, I just don’t think ‘if you don’t like it leave’ is kind, but that’s just me.

@keobooks I won’t comment on any one person in open forum whether I agree or not but what I will say is that taking time to PM and communicate sometimes is very enlightening, and I firmly believe there is something to love/ redeeming in almost every human being on earth. :)

@KNOWITALL “there is something to hate/unredeeming in almost every human being on earth” too. It’s finding a tolerable balance. The harm isn’t in disagreeing, it’s in being deliberately disagreeable.

@ibstubro I suppose that could be true if you focus on the negative, which is the opposite of what I want for my life. If I hated or disliked everyone who was ever disagreeable here or in RL, I’d sit alone in my room because none of us are perfect.

Getting into a tussle with someone isn’t the same as disliking them. I’ve been round and round in arguments with many people I liked. I neither like nor dislike @MadMadMax anymore. But we got into a fight. Usually when you fight with people online, they get over it after a bit and either ignore you, fight with you again or befriend you. Quitting over a tiff is a gross overreaction. I think she was looking for an excuse to leave so she could focus solely on Quora.

If I hated everyone I fought with I’d be lonely. I am a feisty person sometimes. I’ll warn you, I’ll probably fight with you sometime—or turbo. I just roll that way. But I get over it and a few weeks later I may be fighting on your side, defending you.

@keobooks Oh yeah, same here, I love to argue. I also get over it quickly and move on…lol, so we should get along great—in the long run anyway.

Me too! Me too! :)

To give more than three questions mean people might chose substantive questions over fluff, but since they are limited, they go for the fluff first, otherwise this place would not have fun.

I think if Fluther was to allow users to ask more than 3 questions, it should not be an unlimited amount of questions permitted. The site could possibly still control spam and maintain quality by allowing users ask a maximum of 5 questions within the usual 12 hour period. Or possibly increase your question daily allowance based on Lurve score.

But I don’t think unlimited questions is a good idea. That wasn’t even allowed on Yahoo Answers. Level 1s only got 5 questions a day. When you got to Level 3, you could ask 10 questions. Level 6 / Level 7 could ask a maximum of 20.

But as I side note, I don’t really like Quora. I used to be a member there and I ended up deleting my account. They have a real name policy and you have little control of your own content. Your name isn’t even attached as an original poster. Plus anyone can edit your content without your permission. I’d rather be limited to 3–5 questions a day, it it means I have control over the content that I put up.